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HKU weekly notice

21 Jul 2017

The Stephen Hui Geological Museum to present the largest exhibition on private mineral collections in Hong Kong

Period: Now till August 31, 2017

This exhibition will showcase over 200 precious minerals from 18 collectors from Hong Kong homes. Highlights are the infinite variety of minerals on display including one of the best gemmy single crystals of Tanzanite from Merelani Mine, a very rare large gem quality Aquamarine on Albite with large fluid inclusions from Balochi, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and a 18 cm large gemmy Rhodochrosite on Quartz from the famous Sweet Home Mine in Colorado, U.S.A.. The mineral display cabinet of the late Dr Stephen Hui Sze-fun with a selection from his private collection is also included.

Details of the Exhibition:
Venue: 1/F, Stephen Hui Geological Museum, James Hsioung Lee Science Building, Main Campus, the University of Hong Kong
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed on Saturdays and Sundays, University and Public HolidaysFree Admission

UMAG exhibitions1. Hong Kong in Ink and Colour: Contemporary Chinese Paintings from the University Museum's Collection witnesses the changing cityscape

Period: Now till August 27, 2017 (Sunday)

Hong Kong’s steady development is mirrored at UMAG by its collection of Hong Kong art. This exhibition exemplifies the fascination of local artists with the ever-changing landscapes and seascapes. Furthermore, the variety of media employed — ink, watercolour and oil — reveals the talents and interest of the artists in exploring various techniques to best record lifelike and abstract depictions.

Over the years documented by a collection of selected paintings, Hong Kong has grown into a celebrated international art scene. Many of the artists exhibited in the collection have contributed to the development of local culture and to the training of aspiring students in Hong Kong and abroad. At the same time their artworks exemplify the materials, techniques and stylistic features that are receptive of, as well as influential in, a diversity of artistic environments.

Ying Tianqi was born in 1949 in Wuhu, a city located in southeastern Anhui Province. The public presentation of these artworks translates the artist’s nostalgia for and contemplation of two unique and emotionally charged ancient sites in Anhui province that are celebrated for their historic architecture. Within his visual language, images of ruins are embedded in abstract or geometric forms with textural surfaces and colours that inspire associations with architectural frames and fragments, as well as traces of bricks and tiles from Anhui’s architectural heritage.

Both an artist and activist, Ying Tianqi continues to be socially engaged in the process of heritage preservation and the reconstruction of the ancient city of Wuhu. In 2014, his heritage proposal to the government was centred around the concept of ‘Remains—Rebirth’. As part of this initiative, he mobilised thousands of villagers to retrieve bricks in order to rebuild his home town. Through this action he directly questioned the widely accepted practice of re-building rather than conserving and restoring built environments. The UMAG exhibition visually and critically contemplates decay and reconstruction, bridging the past and the future.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of lectures, guided tours and workshops highlighting aspects of the transformation of our ever-developing built environments.